Ron, Charlie, and a Babysitter from the Past
by Tarrant Hawkins
Summary: Charlie has come home before the Quidditch World Cup. As he talks with Ron, he reveals some information that is VERY interesting about someone that Ron knows from school. Takes place shortly before the events of Goblet of Fire. Enjoy!


Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own the characters of Ron and Charlie Weasley. They belong to J.K. Rowling who really needs to get the rest of the books out on the market. The plotline does belong to me, though it was inspired by a conversation with a good friend. I don't intend to sell this, make money on it, etc. etc.  
  
Setting: The summer after the events of Prisoner of Azkaban, before the Quidditch World Cup.  
  
Ron Weasley sat on his bed in his room, where, as usual, everything was covered in Chudley Cannons paraphernalia. What was unusual was that two extra beds had been crammed into the space as his brothers, Charlie and Bill, were due home anytime now. They were coming home, both to assuage their mother who had been begging them to visit and to catch some rest before going to the Quidditch world cup with the majority of the Weasley family. For this reason, the twins would be living in Ron's room for a while.  
  
Ron was especially looking forward to Charlie's visit. He always had such interesting stories to tell about the dragons in Romania. Ron also had a closer relationship with Charlie than Bill as Bill was older than Charlie, and thus, had spent less time with the youngest Weasley boy. Ron had loved summer Quidditch lessons from Charlie when he was little. He only wished that he could be on the Gryffindor team someday to make his brother proud of him.  
  
The red-haired teen sat cross-legged on his bed, rereading the last owl message he had from Charlie. For this reason, he failed to notice when the door to his room creaked open. In stepped an auburn haired, freckled young man, not much taller than Ron. A grin crossed the young man's face, breaking his intense look. "Hey, Ronnikins," Charlie said in greeting.  
  
Brown eyes leapt off the parchment they were reading to look at the second oldest Weasley boy. "Charlie!" Ron exclaimed happily, not as ticked off at his childhood nickname, as he would be had Fred or George used it. "I didn't think you'd be here till later tonight!" The fourteen year old jumped up and gave his brother a hug. Then feeling a bit childish, he backed up and blushed red.  
  
"Glad to see you too, kid," Charlie said, trying hard not to laugh at his brother's antics. Ron was so refreshingly honest in his emotions. "Can I sit?"  
  
"Yeah, sure," Ron said, scooting stuff over on the bed so there was room for his brother. He sat down and managed to hold back his questions until Charlie had a chance to sit down. He got a good look at his brother in the meantime, from his green sweater emblazoned with a red dragon, to the callused hands and merrily dancing brown eyes.  
  
"So why are you here so early?" Ron asked.  
  
"Work was going slow, so they let me out early. There's not much to do when the dragons are nesting. They get a little overly cranky at that point in time. Plus my supervisor wanted me to take a notice to the Ministry of Magic, which I've done. So how was your third year of Hogwarts?"  
  
Ron shifted a bit awkwardly, not quite sure how much to tell his brother about what had all happened in the last year. After a moment's hesitation, he decided to forego any mention of Sirius Black and stick to academic areas of school. Charlie sensed the pause, but did not remark on it, figuring Ron would reveal it eventually. His little brother, after all, did not excel at subtlety.  
  
"Its basically the same," Ron said with a shrug. "I'm definitely no Percy, but I get by."  
  
"Well, no one is, he's worse than Bill was by far because at least Bill was still cool. Not quite sure how Percy ended up so Percy-ish, but he's a good sort despite all the prissiness and rule-abiding stuff."  
  
Ron pulled a face at that, but didn't disagree. While Percy was indeed unbearable at least he did look out for other people. As he was removing the sour expression from his face, Charlie asked a question. "So how were your Profs this year?"  
  
"Well, McGonnagal still has it out for all of us, but at least she doesn't hate Gryffindor. She leaves that up to Snape. He's absolutely insufferable. Hagrid taught Care of Magical Creatures this term. That was a disaster waiting to happen. His interest in interesting creatures can be a bit.alarming. However, after Malfoy pulled his stunt we got stuck with flobberworms. There's so boring. The only really good class was Defense against the Dark Arts, Lupin, this new teacher, actually knew his stuff and wasn't scared of it. He even brought in this boggart. And it turned into this nasty spider, but I got rid of its legs, but"  
  
"Remus Lupin?" Charlie asked suddenly, interrupting Ron's train of thought.  
  
"Yeah," Ron said. "Professor Remus Lupin, but he won't be back next y..."  
  
"He used to babysit Bill and me!" Charlie exclaimed, interrupting again. "Way back, before you and the twins were born. I think he even watched Percy and the twins once in awhile. Back when Voldemort was getting really dangerous. Last time he watched us, well, oh before the whole incident with the Potters. Does he still have a dog?"  
  
Ron, a bit stunned at this revelation from his brother, took a while to answer. His brothers had been watched by Lupin! He wondered if that meant they knew Harry's godfather from before as well. And what was this about a dog? "No, the only thing Professor Lupin had in his office were magical creatures like a grindylow, leastwise that's what Harry said."  
  
"Oh," Charlie's face said falling a bit. "Numerous times when he'd watch us, either here or at Arabella Figg's house, he'd have a large black dog with him. It's name Kind of looked like the Grim. Now that I think about it, I never actually saw where Lupin lived, he always watched us at other people's houses. Always looked a bit rough around the edges, Lupin did. Not the newest clothes, but he was a fun guy. Knew lots of stories to tell us and played with the dog and us. Couple of times he looked down right ill."  
  
"A dog that looked like the Grim?" Ron exclaimed. "I'm surprised mom let him near you with a dog like that. Was there anything else weird about it?" Ron asked this mainly to buy sometime as he had a sudden weird thought in his head. This sounded way to familiar to someone he had met at the end of his third year. Someone who apparently had been quite entangled in the past with the Potters and now the Weasleys.  
  
Charlie gave his youngest brother a sidelong glance. Ron seemed a bit more excitable than even he normally should be at just the mention of a dog. "Well, he had the strangest blue eyes for such a large, black dog, but no nothing really. You said Professor Lupin wouldn't be back. Why not?"  
  
Ron pondered having to dodge the answer on that one, but then decided to tell the truth, at least part of it, as he was sure by now the Slytherins were in the process of telling the whole world. "Well, you see, Professor Lupin, is, well, has this condition that's incurable."  
  
"You mean like a disease?" Charlie asked, a bit stunned.  
  
"Well, no," Ron replied. "He's a werewolf. And Snape told his whole house, so Lupin left before he could be fired."  
  
Charlie paled. "No wonder he looked ill. But how could they fire him if he did a good job? Its not his fault he's a werewolf."  
  
"No," Ron agreed, "But he's afraid he'd bite a student. He almost bit me but that wasn't his fault. I was somewhere where I shouldn't have been, helping Harry out. The whomping willow was planted to protect Lupin and people from him when he was at Hogwarts, leads to the shrieking shack."  
  
"So that's where that tunnel led. I never could figure that out from the Marauder's Map. Got caught with it when I was trying to figure that out by Filch. Never saw it again."  
  
Ron's jaw dropped open. "You know about the Marauder's Map?"  
  
"You mean you do too?" Charlie looked at Ron suspiciously.  
  
"Well, the twins had it."  
  
"Why does that not surprise me?" Charlie asked no one in particular.  
  
"But then they gave it to Harry." Ron, quivering with things he needed to vent got up. "I'll be right back, I have to, uh, go check on the ghoul in the attic, it's been causing problems."  
  
Running out the door, he ran up to the attic and began writing a very quick note to his best friend Harry Potter, ignoring the ghoul's loud antics nearby.  
  
HARRY!!! You'll never believe what I just learned. Charlie and Bill used to get babysat by LUPIN. And guess what? He brought a dog named Snuffles with him, a dog that sounds a LOT like Sirius. Had blue eyes and looked like the Grim. Oh, and Charlie also had the Marauder's map at one point in time! Anyway, got to go. Can't wait till you get here to go see the cup.  
  
Ron  
  
Tying the note to a wobbly Errol's leg, Ron sent the owl off to his friend. He then muttered at the ghoul, who had quieted down of its accord. He headed back to his room to talk to Charlie. 


End file.
